Monotone Nothingness
by Black Beyond
Summary: The price of perfect life isn't all it seems. Hundreds of years after Crystal Tokyo, one senshi is determined to end her own paradise... will it be the downfall? Serious fluff. Revised and reloaded. Flames accepted with pride.


  
Monotone Nothingness  
Black Beyond  
black_beyond@hotmail.com  
PG13  
~'~  
It's short, not necessarily sweet, but to the point. It's   
just fluff, set in the very far away future. Crystal   
Tokyo's been around for a while, and everything kind of...   
well, read it and find out. I can't really summarize this   
at all without giving it away. It's a death fic, but even   
if you don't like death fics, you should like this.  
  
You know where to e-mail me. Anything's welcome.  
  
I actually sent this to my beloved editor, and then I   
actually copy-pasted it to Microsoft Works and ran spell-  
check... I'm so proud... :sniffles:   
~'~  
  
  
  
  
  
Her expression didn't change in the slightest as   
the wave of music, pumped up to a level where it surpassed   
even the long-missed Usagi's wail, hit her like a brick.   
Her skirt was short, sexy, and even mildly scandalous, and   
she had a body guys drooled over.  
  
And yet, she didn't even smirk. Smirking would have   
at least been the reaction she would have used long ago.   
Smirking was normal for her then, when she was the only   
cynic of the group. Smirking was no longer required. She   
was here simply because this was a place no one would   
think to look for her.  
  
No one expected her to come here. This was a place   
to have fun, and fun was a word that had long lost all   
meaning to them.   
  
This was her sanctuary.  
  
She ignored the catcalls. Romance no longer held   
any interest for her. Romance was for those who would live   
for it, those who were still innocent. Romance was not for   
her. Even physical pleasure had lost it's lure for her,   
although some of the others still resorted to it. She knew   
Usagi and Mamoru did. Hell, it was probably the only thing   
keeping the King and Queen of Earth sane.  
  
She envied Haruka and Michiru to infinitely. They   
were not here, in this joke of a kingdom. They were   
signing treaties with the few life-bearing planets. Their   
lives were not monotone nothingness. Something changed for   
them, everyday.   
  
They did not regret the day they had met the moon   
cat Luna.  
  
She sighed, strange for her, as she entered the   
swinging doors, the music slowly slipping form her   
hearing. She had become used to ignoring things.   
  
She merely saw. Saw the expressions of glee and   
lust, saw the dancing. She saw. She was not part of all of   
this, she only saw.   
  
She flinched as a man cupped one of her buttocks in   
his hand. She turned to glare at him. He was tall,   
actually quite handsome. In earlier days, she would have   
been flattered. Angry, of course, but she wouldn't have   
felt the annoyance she felt now.  
  
She smiled teasingly, using her acting skills that   
had been honed to perfectness. With one languid, delicate   
finger, she traced a line from his abs to the collar of   
his shirt.   
  
With a swift movement, she grabbed his collar and   
brought him down so she could stare into his eyes, the   
mask gone, anger and irritation etched into her exotic   
features.  
  
"Do you know who I am?" She asked, in a low voice   
of sheer velvet fury.  
  
He shook his head dumbly, stunned by her swing of   
expressions.  
  
"I am Hino Rei, asshole. Touch me again and you'll   
regret it."  
  
He went pale and jerked himself from her grasp,   
backing away.  
  
Her name was known. Known more than she could have   
ever hoped if she had been a world-famous singer. She was   
the hot-tempered soldier of fire, the one who killed   
without mercy. The one who never, ever, showed pity. She   
was feared more than the Jovial senshi, for at least   
Makoto still held a glimmer of hope and innocence.   
  
Rei had lost that long ago. She had stopped seeing   
people. She stopped feeling, entirely. Only anger,   
annoyance, and sorrow still dwelled within her.   
  
It was not self pity. It was indifference,   
acceptance of that indifference and being indifferent to   
that acceptance. If she died tomorrow, her only regret   
would be that she had not told off the long-winded,   
pompous ambassadors she had to deal with when she had the   
chance.  
  
She pushed her way through the crowd of dancing,   
laughing people and to the bar. The bartender stared her   
for a moment, trying to place her face.  
  
It was obvious he had; his face noticeably paled and   
he gulped. Still, he had a job to do, and he supposed that   
if he ignored her, she would only become angry.  
  
"Whadda ya 'ave?" He asked, his voice an octave   
higher than what it should have been. This went thankfully   
unnoticed to the fire senshi.  
  
"Vodka, no water." She answered, her eyes fixed on   
the dancing couples.   
  
Had she been like that, once? Of course, she knew   
she had. She could even remember what it had been like,   
turning eighteen and finally getting in legally to a club,   
giggling over the more handsome of the boys with Minako   
and Makoto while they teased Ami and Usagi and Mamoru   
swooned over each other. It had been bliss, a utopia. She   
had felt on top of the world, carefree.  
  
She knew she would never feel that emotion again.  
  
She sipped absently at her drink, savoring the way   
it burned at her throat. To be drunk again would be   
marvelous, to be rid of the straight lines and lack of   
emotions.   
  
But they had discovered, long ago, when the first   
pressures of running a planet began to hit, that achohol   
couldn't combat their healing abilities, and to be drunk   
required hours of straight drinking for as little as ten   
minutes of carefreeness again. In the end, she had decided   
the cost wasn't worth it.  
  
"Mind if I join you?"  
  
She looked up, feeling an unfamiliar twinge of   
surprise at the face she looked into.  
  
"Of course not. Fancy seeing you here, Minako." She   
said, not bothering with the suffixes of a city long dead.   
  
Minako smiled sourly.  
  
"I suspect you're here for the same reason, then."   
She ordered a drink and sat on the stool next to Rei. "Can   
you remember what it was like to be so happy, Rei-chan?"   
She asked. Rei flinched involuntarily at the endearment,   
but nodded.  
  
"I can, Minako. I think that hurts worse than not   
being able to." Her shoulders slumped. "We've become   
drones, Minako. Nothing more. Nothing less. We... we..."   
She took another drink. "I don't feel anymore, Minako. And   
I don't care than I don't feel."  
  
"I know." Minako downed her glass in two large   
gulps. "I know. It hurts, doesn't it? I mean, the part   
about remembering."  
  
"Maybe we could do what Hotaru did. She's happy."   
Rei suggested. Minako gave her a dirty look.  
  
"Rei-chan, Hotaru has to move to a new part oft he   
world every thirty, forty years. I don't want to live   
under an assumed name. My name is all I have left."  
  
"At least people don't fear your name." Rei   
retorted. "I've heard what they call me. Killer. Murderer.   
Hell, the parents use me to frighten their children, like   
ours did with the bogeyman." She scowled and ordered the   
nervous bartender to refill her glass.  
  
"Rei-chan, you did questionable things. We all   
did."  
  
"You didn't like doing those things." Rei said. "I   
did. I liked every minute of it, because it kept my mind   
of this kingdom of brain-washed humans. I wanted to go out   
there. I liked it, and they know it. You know it." Rei   
looked up into Minako's comforting blue eyes.   
  
"I suppose you're right."  
  
"Huh? About what?"  
  
"What you said, about being drones."  
  
"Of course. We've been around too long." A feeling   
of panic, one that had she had felt precious little times,   
struck as a condemning thought entered her mind. "Oh,   
gods, Minako! What if.. what if we can't die? At all?"   
  
Minako nodded.  
  
"I've thought about that. I don't know. Ami says we   
can, but, Rei-chan, it's been two thousand years. We still   
look like twenty year-olds."  
  
"Two thousand, fifty-seven years." Rei corrected.   
"And 'look like' is the correct term. I feel like I'm four   
thousand years old. Damnit, if I don't die soon, I'm going   
to--"  
  
Minako shushed her.   
  
"Rei, we are senshi. If we're going to die, let's   
go out with a bang." She said, grinning maniacally. "After   
all, we can't break tradition."  
  
Rei pondered this for a few minutes.  
  
"Elaborate."  
  
"I think, perhaps, if we power up, we could take   
out the block, maybe two." Minako said, so casually she   
might have been talking about the weather.  
  
"No." Rei shook her head. "Just because we have   
lost taste for life doesn't mean we have to destroy   
innocents. I believe I've still got a place in Elysion.   
I'm not going to screw that up anymore." She smiled.  
  
"How about the country-side?" Minako asked. "A few   
acres of farmland won't be missed."  
  
Rei nodded.  
  
"A pact." She suggested. "In five years, if one of   
us, meaning any of the senshi, hasn't died from a natural   
cause, we'll meet out were Osaka used to be."  
  
"Deal."  
  
They drank on it.  
  
~'~  
  
  
Five years later, two figures, one in fiery red,   
the other in brilliant gold, stood in the middle of the   
ruins of a once-great city.   
  
"Ready?" The golden once asked.  
  
"I've been ready for the last four hundred years."   
The one in red replied. She held up her hands, palms   
facing the other. The one in gold pressed her palms to the   
one in red.  
  
"Mars Crystal Power..." The one in red whispered.  
  
"Venus Crystal Power..." The other murmured.  
  
They looked into each other's eyes once more, and   
then...  
  
They were free.  
  
  
~'~  
  
  
  
"Early this morning, reports confirm that Sailor   
Senshi Mars and Sailor Senshi Venus used their powers to   
destroy the ruins of Osaka, taking their lives in the   
process. How this came about is still a mystery; we are   
awaiting Sailor Senshi Mercury's diagnosis..."  
  
Neo-Queen Serenity reached up and turned the   
television off.  
  
"They meant to do it," Makoto said. None of them   
looked any different. They knew someone would do it sooner   
or later. "Minako had tied up everything nice and neat."   
She smiled wryly. "And half of the representatives are   
complaining because Rei gave them a piece of her mind. They   
were planning this."  
  
Ami nodded sadly.  
  
"We've all been here too long, Serenity. They were   
just the first to have the courage to do something about   
it..."  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
  
  
Fluff. Meaningless fluff. Well, kind of. Oh, stop listening to me  
and tell me whatcha thought! See the box right below this mindless   
chatter? Write in it!  
  
  
  



End file.
